Boxford 260 VMC rebuild

[mike-f]

With the rogue ball screws sorted and the wonky tooling tamed, I turned my attention to the control panel. The old one was a sorry sight—rusty and bearing scars from what looked like a minor electrical tantrum. Several components on the back had, shall we say, “vigorously disassembled” themselves at some point. The new panel needed to be a proper job: an MPG dial, feedrate and spindle override controls, plus manual switches for spindle and coolant.
After measuring the old panel and unceremoniously binning it, I fired up the CAD software and faffed about until I had a layout that didn’t offend my sensibilities. I sent the design off to have the panel laser-cut from 1.2mm 304 stainless steel. When it arrived, I dug out my home-brew 40W CO2 laser to engrave the markings. To get a proper finish, I used Ceramark laser marking spray—spray it on, let the laser work its magic, and it fuses into the surface, leaving a crisp, permanent black engraving. Not bad for a bit of shed tinkering, if I do say so myself. Anyone else had to resurrect a control panel from the grave? Or is it just me battling these relics?